Steve McQueen's 1956 Jaguar XKSS - Jay Leno's Garage

[Music] welcome to the episode of Jay Leno's Garage today we're gonna talk and drive one of the most exciting cars in the history of the automobile this is a 1956 Jaguar xkss once owned by Steve McQueen so there's there are two reasons that it's cool right there we're for watching enough to have this car here today because it's on loan from the Petersen Automotive Museum one of the greatest automotive museums in the history of the world it's right here in Los Angeles you ever hear you should come down and see it let's meet Chris Brown the marketing director Chris how are you hi Jay one day I'm going to talk about the whole Rihanna thing that's that's in the past let's just talk cars and marketing today that's good okay but people don't know the Petersons tell us a little bit about it well the Petersons is at the corner of Wilshire and Fairfax were right in the heart of the museum row area in Los Angeles and we have three floors of exciting automobiles we have about 350 vehicles in our collection and our collection is very eclectic something you're familiar like every time I go there's different things that come up from the basement move different cars yeah yeah we always have new exhibits so it makes it interesting you can always come back and see something new right right well I want to thank you for bringing this car here because this car has been around Los Angeles for years and years when I first came in the 80s I would see Steve McQueen in this car which was actually very cool then it was just an old jag right of course the most exciting jag of a bill but by far pretty cool and just the fact that the Petersen lets these cars get out and be driven shows that it says sort of a living breathing museum a lot of museums you know stuff just sits there for 30 years and you know they don't run right being you know a car needs to be exercised and consequently they just become static displays whereas the Petersen you take the car out and they drive it around they take it to events so it's really exciting to see them used as they as they are intended we do take it to a lot of events it's been on different driving tours a couple years ago there was the big xkss research we participate in that well it's a great testament to the Petersons itself the fact that it's it's not just the museum that's run by car enthusiasts yeah and also happens to be in seaman because Bob Peterson if you don't know he was the guy who started hot rod magazine and really started automotive magazine publishing in America yeah January 1948 hot rod magazine and it just grew from there and and he really wanted to build a car museum in the city build around the automobile and they kind of celebrated you know where he came from and this was his car he bought this oh yes yes mr. Peterson purchased this number of years ago and you know it's just well he was a terrific guy Chris thank you very much we gotta get Matt stone now Matt come on in Matt is the author of this terrific book McQueen's Machines bit of a tongue twister but I put it you've done a lot of history on Steve McQueen and of course he was sort of the ultimate car guy as well as being a huge movie star I was flush enough to know him a little bit we had mutual friends like but Eakins and those guys and he really was an enthusiast when you went to his garage up there in Santa Paula I mean it was just stuff all over the place Indian motorcycles very eclectic as well yeah wide variety of tastes and and just loved all manner of cars bikes trucks and airplanes right and a very very capable racing driver and off-road racer as well I mean McQueen absolutely a real car guy yeah yeah and it was shame he died at what age 50 50 I know I know it's just because I was well I guess I was about 30 when he passed away and 50 seemed really old then and now I go oh man that was like 14 years ago well I remember this car when it was owned by another gentleman here in Los Angeles and I would see it around town he used to take it to the rock store it was a valuable car not as valuable as it is now what is the value of a car like this now about five or six million dollars something I'm gonna guess and say Jay you're low by a factor of at least five really I guess I am guessing this is a twenty five thirty million dollar car these days really Wow I think so that's one man's opinion tell us a little history of the courage you know it well the xkss as you know Jay is a stratified Jaguar d-type and the d-type was Jaguars very very successful sports racer in the 1950s right the car was getting a little long in tooth about that time and they had some leftovers customer cars then they were cat erased them in the future and said what do we do with these so they said we'll do some exhausts and some some glass and a few little things and and call it the XK Super Sport KSS and sell them as street cars right imagine that happening today no it would be hard to do today but I mean that show I love that error when street cars were very close to a race cars were very close to street cars you know in those days you could literally drive your car l'm too l'm all change the gearing change the tires win the race and drive home I mean that would be impossible to do now because everything is so specific but it was a it was a great era and how many xkss is I remember there's a big fire in Browns Lane a bunch were destroyed correct the original plan was to build about 25 of them and they ultimately did 16 as one of the 16 okay and where does this fit in on the 16 you know or there is serial number seven one three and I'm not sure exactly in the hierarchy where that comes in okay and of course the windows they're not come down right you have to unscrew them here if you want to take them off had a top gas tank right behind there doesn't look like the seats adjustable at all is it no not so funny thing about the seats J very much relating to one of your cars who upholstered the seats in your Mercedes going oh that would be Tony Nancy Oh Tony Nancy did ok well Tony Nancy was a very popular hot rodder back in the 50s and 60s who who did all the cars for Hot Rod Magazine and car craft and all the sort of cars that went on the show circuits so oh that's pretty cool sorry I was going to say that didn't look like original quilting material well cuz the car was originally white with the red interior right and Steve McQueen had it redone to these much more subtle colors right he never went for screaming colors even McQueen running around in bright red cars or even the white with the red maybe just a little too much for him right he ended up with this very traditional and elegant British colour scheme including having Tony Nancy do the seats and I'll show you another little trick what's that see the glovebox right Lib yeah that's originally just open binnacle yeah and Steve McQueen wanted a place to keep his cigs and his keys that his sunglasses or whatever so he had somebody whip up that little door for him by the name of Von Dutch oh one Dutch Von Dutch fab right okay that's interesting that's interesting as well and Steve was Queen sunglasses sold $70,000 at all it gets a little silly I mean I like the guy but come on 70 grand four percent glasses but hey that's the power of being a movie star tell us that let's get back to the car now I've got a couple XK 120 s and this is what a three point four or three point eight three three four three four and how is it different from the XK 120 motor horsepower cam what's different hotter cams okay your carburetors a higher compression but but substantively an architectural II much the same motor that you would have found in an XK 140 okay and how many horsepower would this be I want to say it was rated around 250 okay and when you drive it you'll decide yes it's a it's about a five second car so in in the parlance of 1956 or today it's still fast yeah yeah this is all the fastest cars of the period certainly and and the fact that it's basically the same engine that was in the sedans and in the sports car it's a pretty amazing well let's go around and let's take a look spare tires kept back here correct mm-hmm you pop this door open the time and that's that was a regulation that the race car had to carry a spare correct to prove that it really did stem from a street car how legitimate that rule was or wasn't yeah who knows but that was the rule and and that's what they made this car do because it really did stem from a race car becoming a street car not the other way around a lot of aluminum in this car yeah so to keep the weight way down right we call exactly what it weighs but it's very light is the body in women most of it okay several bits of it okay so I remember initially in 48 they built some aluminum body xks and then they went to steel body correct and this looks safe how the gas tank right here behind your head I guess that's for better weight distribution constants in the center of the car can we open the hood that's fine with me yeah take a look not his car what does he care Chris can you help us out here okay all right boy it is very light isn't it this is a dry sump system correct yes which of course is different from the regular XK 120 or 140 that was not dry sump what else is different got Weber's on it which it didn't have so the D type solver in Weber's huh very nicely done what do we have here oil cooler yeah aluminum radiator and coolers up front what's really significant to me J chassis wise is is like an e-type and some of the others from right about here back it's a monocoque Thomas okay and this structure here is a bolt-on tubular frame that the suspension of the engine oil mounts to so it's a semi tube frame semi-monocoque design we're thinking yeah she breathes pretty well well we have talked before J that that you're going was perhaps the very original exotic car right I think this one is right in the same ball for sure look at some of this yeah this hardware and the features and and it's a pretty exalt it just breaks alone and pretty amazing of those the stock wheels on the car yeah they are dunlop knockoffs but but these have been shined up a little bit polished most of where we're stove enameled or painted silver okay now were they polished in the day or did Steve just have that done yeah yeah it looks great it looks great Matt and I aren't exactly experts on this engine here but I see our shop form you don't Bernard well he used to race these used to work and he's over there frothing at the mouth take a look at him but not come on in here we're asking about this is the master cylinder obviously I'm asking about the third line and a one his front one is back well jaguar built the very educated a hydraulic system they actually had a pump that actuated the brakes like a power brake so like a booster like a booster yeah and and so this line that you're asking about this this one here yeah it's for the back and then this other one or the small small one goes up front for the front brakes and then the big one that's fluid supply and fluid returned to the reservoir now we were talking about the head before I remember there was there was a D head that was different wasn't there they made what they called a wide-angle head and they splayed the valve some order this is not one of them cuz the wide-angle head this distance in here right it's about twice as much okay now what's displayed about the cams out did only the racing ones have that or why did some right that was only a racing version and it allowed them to put a I think it's a to an agent or a two of the quarter-inch intake valve in it and you mentioned this engine is tilted about yeah it's tilted about site seven degrees to the left okay in order for to get better hood clearance oh okay so those unusual the drilling on the back of the motor for the gearbox is tipped seven degrees so this motor will not fit into it a street car okay all right and then these soft frames here although they're very much like to eat pipe but it goes all the way back to the back bulkhead through the tunnel so they reinforce it that way and the monocoque of course is all alone it's all aluminum okay and it's a gas tank right here or does that hose go back to the standard now there's a gas tank right it's right so better weight distribution so it's in the center of the car what it goes across okay very cool hair the other thing that's different from this to the e-type it has a solid axle oh right yeah cuz they even went to the independent rear suspension it had a solid axle yeah we forget it looks so futuristic and modern but it's really 1956 which is really 1954 55 this is the end of the deal wasn't it live axle and disc brakes run independent suspension that's quite the combination yeah yeah you know that this car was extremely fast they went over 180 miles an hour at Molson Wow in this car 55 56 well we're gonna try and do that right now with the Petersons we'll see if we get into 180 right out here on no one now we're gonna take it for ride very respectful this is gonna be fun well how exciting is is not only is it one of the most legendary race cars of all time but it's belonged to Steve McQueen you know when I first came to Hollywood in the 70s I I would see this car occasionally around town and it was really exciting then but it was an old race car but it wasn't just any race car was an xkss and and you know the stories the legends the fire the whole deal was only 16 of them in the world pretty amazing well let's uh let's get this drive going first thing we do is turn the key and your ignition is under here they should dimmer switch your horn is over there [Music] [Music] you know what's sad I will never be Steve McQueen but let's but for one brief moment I can pretend let's go for a ride [Music] well first impression is it's so much lighter than in xk120 you know the aluminum skin and all the aluminum it's very light very light to the touch and incredibly powerful fairly long-legged you know I've pulled away in first gear I thought moe am i insert no no no this thing is just geared for top speed I guess boy [Music] I was like this 3.4 motor in the 3.8 - they seem to Rev a lot nicer than the later 4.2 [Music] although Steve McQueen was the king of cool it's easy to be cool in this car this is something special oh my god imagine seeing this car parked on the street back in the 70s incredible water oil temperature all normal a lot of times museum cars don't drive let's see what you sound like [Music] Pavarotti Golden Age and water when race cars are sweet and far I mean this is a car you get in and drive to San Francisco wouldn't be temperamental at all yet it's a race car you know they've been some wonderful reproductions of this car over the years but nothing beats an original oh my god [Music] like a modern father cards aren't gonna feel this good lay this thing as I'm astounded at how light the steering is and I like the front end XPS of 120s has there been a clutch lift you can hear that we can adjust that I just can't believe how nice is the drive you know it's like meeting a beautiful movie star and you're intimidated at first then you find out oh it's she's just a regular girl accept Jesus when we star and that's that's that's really what this car is I I'm stunned I I this is unbelievable sixty Bailey's tried a little over 2000 rpm [Music] no see it's got a really high top speed you [Music] you really feel like Steve McQueen in this thing I'm waiting for those two guys in the Dodge Charger to start shooting at me that was a full annals of must night okay forget dad [Music] it truly is one of the most beautiful [Music] it's amazing there's nothing like a rich Amado think this car has ever been as it always draw it's funny you would have thought back in the day because all the million of these things we compare this to the other cars of the 50 the Ferrari at the b12 but Porsche was 175 horsepower 90 horsepower amazing give the Mercedes going a real run for it back in the day but we would drive this thing to buddy gets motorcycle shop now you don't realize what the good old days are and so you look back and go yeah that's right just get any better than that [Music] this one those cars you wait your whole life to drive never think you'll ever get the chance so this is a real treat I want to thank Matt stone across who wrote the book on Steve McQueen and the Petersen museum go down and see this car in person that'll blow you away it'll be smaller than you thought it'll be more compact than you thought it'll be sexier than you thought and it's nice to know that it's a living breathing machine the Petersen takes these out and uses them and then puts them back so people I guess and go and visit them anytime we want so it's really one of the great automotive museums in the world surgery in Los Angeles please come by and come by the Petersen then once again this has been the thrill of a lifetime I don't know what we're gonna do next week how do you top this [Music]

Channel: Jay Leno's Garage

Views: 1,868,598

Keywords: Steve McQueen Car, Steve McQueen (Film Writer), Steve McQueen's Jaguar, Jay Leno, Jay Leno's Garage, car reviews, compares cars, classic cars, vintage cars, sports cars, super cars, cars, car gear, McLaren P1, Porsche 918 Spyder, Camaro Z28

Id: 4Ai0uSj_OVE

Length: 22min 30sec (1350 seconds)

Published: Sun May 25 2014